Catalinbread Semaphore Tremolo

Easy in some ways, not in others. The small footprint means lots of knobs and things in a tight space. I had to magic mark base settings (luckily the pedal is light-colored). Lots of options period, so the less used you are to complex pedals (like me) the longer it will take to figure out. Which is still not very long. The easy part is that all these adjustments really do something. It's a remarkably versatile little device. The bright blue light is sweet. You know exactly what's happening with this thing on a loud stage. Love that light.

This is my third CB pedal, so you might guess I appreciate what Nick is up to. The Semaphore has an exceptionally pleasing sound IMO, especially when you get to crank things a bit. I use it with two clean boosts, delay and reverb, usually into a tweed pro type amp (Sewell Wampus Cat). The volume knob on this thing is the key. By itself, with intensity down, you can use it as a very effective clean boost. I often use it that way after another clean boost, to add just a touch more signal. As a trem, it has an openness, a depth to the sound that I find hard to describe. I'm no expert on this stuff, but there seems to be a lot of headroom here. It can thicken and deepen the sound, so there's a fair amount of on-the-edge of feedback pulsing away, but at the same time, great clarity and warmth. Does not mud up or distort the sound. Whatever the reason, it's quite beautiful. One of my tests for trem is on Link Wray stuff. I'm not looking for his sound ... looking for a LARGE, pulsing version of my own sound. That what the Semaphore gives me.

I depend on it, have never had a problem. No backup at gigs. Jacks are tight, solid. Switch is solid too. Very well built.

Bought is used, so no experience here.

Been playing way too long. Pedals are a pretty recent thing with me. Still feeling my way. Usually running a tele, strat and 335 into tweed type amps. Gain and drive mostly from the amp. Playing lots of swampy stuff, open tunings, slide, greasy old stuff. Magnatone vibrato has long been my favorite effect, but the Semaphore makes a strong case for itself every time I use it. Many other good trems: my buddy's SupaTrem is quite good, and I have a Moollon that is good in its own way. But the Semaphore is number one for me. It comes down to the tone. CB stuff is often described as "musical." Hard to say what that means exactly, but I hear it to be true with the Semaphore.

This thing is soo totally versatile that when you first use it, it may take you a bit to set up the exact sound you want. it comes with some recommended settings so you can use those as a good starting place and then tailor it to your tastes. the knobs are pretty self explanatory though so it's not like you'll be wondering what they do.

i'm using this with a solidbody with humbuckers to a vox amp...i've got a whole mess of pedals and i've noticed that on the really high volumes it generates a bit of noise but it's not much and it's not likely you'll be using it that loud. the pedal sounds great though. it doesn't color your sound but provides the most beautiful tremolo i've ever heard.

yeah this thing is built really tough. it's about the size of a standard mxr pedal but i'm not scared of stomping on it.

before getting the pedal i emailed nick and he was kind enough to reply and answer my questions

i play indie rock and i've been playing guitar for over 7 years and i'd definitely say this is worth the cost. i'd get another one in a heartbeat if it was lost or stolen. i compared this to a vintage dunlop ts-1 tremolo as well as some other modern boutique tremolos and the boss and voodoo labs tremolos....nothing impressed me as much as this little pedal...if you're a heavy stomper i'd recommend getting the american edition though because the smaller original is pretty easy to kick the knobs when stomping if you're not careful

Pretty simple. Controls for Rate, Depth, Volume and Wave Shape, plus there are two switches for Fast/Slow and Triangle/Square waves. The LED also flashes in time with the tempo. Mine is the larger "American Edition", which comes in a larger Hammond-style enclosure like a Voodoo Labs pedal. This big version means your foot won't hit the knobs when you step on the footswitch (which is obviously a bit of a problem on the standard-size model)

Best sounding Trem I've ever tried. I checked out a BOSS TR2, Line6 MM4 and a Fulltone SupaTrem. Predictably, the BOSS absolutely sucked, and its not true-bypass anyways. The Supa Trem was also very disappointing, which was a surprise given that I own several Fulltone pedals that I really like. The Semaphore is just so useful and musical and you can get SO MANY different tones out of it. My usual complaint with modulation effects is that their are either too subtle or too "over-the-top". But, the Semaphore's controls (specifically the rate and depth) have such a huge range that you can dial in any trem sound you want. I found that the "slow" settings were too slow to be useful, but anyone who's looking for ultra-slow trem settings won't be disappointed. The volume control is terrific, because you can set it so there's no volume drop when you turn it on. Some of the extreme settings (particularly the weird, modern "saw-tooth" sounds) can be a little noisy,though. This pedal gets a solid "10" in this category because it offers so many usable sounds.

A few small concerns here. First, the jacks aren't SwitchCraft, they appear to be just no-name brand. That's a little disappointing in a pedal that cost me $200. Second, the footswitch is soldered directly to the PC board. This is really lame. I guess it was necessary in the smaller model to save space, but there's plenty of room in the large enclosure. And while I'm complaining, there was no battery clip inside, and it came without any rubber feet! Not everyone uses velcro!

Haven't talked to customer service, but the builder has a very good reputation on the forums.

Overall, I'm really happy with it. It's small, it was reasonably priced and it sounds terrific. My few minor complaints about its construction quality shouldn't scare people away from it. Oddly enough, I wasn't seriously in the market for a tremolo anyways. But, after I tried it I was so impressed with the Semaphore, I just had to have it.

This pedal is amazing! Fot it's small footprint, there are plently of tonal options. It has the speed(rate) and intensity(depth) controls that all tremolos have, and shape and volume controls. Also
two switches. One for fast/slow modes and another to change from saw tooth to square wave signals. The blue LED pulses at the rate of
tremolo. DC power and jacks are on the top of this MXR sized enclosure. The circuit board is truely a thing of beauty, designed by someone who cared. It's concise and efficient. The manual is basic
enough,a single folded paper with seven samples of different wave shape that can be derived and an explanation of the internal switch and trimmer for internal gain. For someone use to two controls it may
be initially a challenge, but I'm giving a 10 here because it's possible to get so many great sounds from this pedal. A little adjusting and there are more tones than any standard tremolo.

If your favorite artists have songs with that rich sounding Fender type tremolo, (vibrato according to Fender) this pedal will oblige!
It can also boost and even add a little distortion if that's what you want. The effect can be powerful and dynamic or subtle depending upon settings. The tremolo can be smooth or choppy and at the flick of a switch abrupt and intermittant. I like the classic Fender sound
and and smooth that out a bit for a subtle almost Leslie type vibe.
It's very warm and organic sounding.

The pedal is solid and very well designed. The stomp switch is soldered securly to the small circuit board and all connections are beautifly soldered. This my tremolo between a compressor and a Klon.
I have Fender Blackface amps with "vibrato" but use this pedal for its
rich analog sound. An LED and photo electric cells, replace the
opto-roach in the Fender circuit and do a great job! So,this pedal is
onboard for home,jams and gigs.

I brought the pedal through ToneFactor.com and Brad is a pleasure
to deal with. I've not dealt directly with Catalinbread, but judging by the beautiful build quality and design of this pedal,I'm sure that
are efficient and reliable.

I play mostly blues and blues based rock. This pedal does a sterling job of giving me the sounds I need and helps me to sound better. I've
been playing since 1957,was in a high school group 63-65 and have been
in several bands over the years. This the most unique Trem unit out there. It does what the others do in spades and then gives many more options. I play through Black Face Fender amps,An Allen Accomplice
and a 40 watt Allen kit in a Tweed cabinet. The board has a Timmy,Barber Small Fry,Barber Tone Press,The Semaphore Tremolo, a Klon
and a Maxon AD80 Delay. This is the pedal I go to for Fender style trem and a subtle rotating speaker effect. This pedal is truely worth
the price since it does so much,so well in such a small package!

its very very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal, all of the settings are useable in some way.
it takes a while to get used to how the controls work and how they interact especially when changeing the switches. but after a couple of days it will be second nature.
the manual is ok. everything you need to know is there. and Nick is a good guy and easy to contact.
Do I know the firmware revision number? I dont even know what that means

This does all the classic sounds great. all the fender trem you could ever want.
it interacts with the teaser stallion very well and is a great tool for it if thats what you want it for. But id say it really shines as just a normal trem.
its never noisy even when its acting as just a boost (yes it does that too, set depth to 0 and volume to max)
the trem always sounds great on any setting, thought balancing the volume control can be a pain sometimes.
im running LPs and tele through a couple of fx into a marshall JTM45.

id happily gig this without a backup, its not a main point of my rig so i could live without it. but i have no worries about depending on this. built to last.

Nick is great. easy to contact, via emails of right here on harmony central forums. FX

its great for any style of music that a trem would be used for.
ive been playing about 6 yrs.
other gear includes (FX) subdecay liquid sunshine, teaser stallion, SCOD, magicboy vibe, tuners, verbs, wahs etc.

i love how versatile this pedal is and just how damn good it sounds. its also really small so i can have more pedals on my pedaltrain jnr :)
sometimes i wish it could be even more choppy when on slower settings (more off, less on time)
it doesnt help me make music, only i can do that. but it doesnt get in the way...
just go buy one.

EASY!!!! Sounds amazing and has more options than the others I tried. Manual explains waves- otherwise use your ears!!!

From smooth to choppy this thing kicks ass. Freaking helicopter blades to a soft undertone warble. Trim pot inside to tweak volume to taste. Im using it with an american strat, 59 fender tweed princeton, and a small assortment of pedals. My favorite so far is combined with my ad900 analog delay- FUN! I purchased it for the studio and it will fit right in. It could take reamping to a whole new level....

Just got it. Looks and feels solid but you never know. I will say Im not worried!

Not yet. Great web site though. Ive read good things but again, I personally have no idea.

I made this review because when I went looking for info on this pedal I couldn't find much. On the blogs it gets a lot of mentions but that was about it. This is my take/advice-
I almost bought it without hearing it but decided I wanted to be sure- I should have saved time and just bought it. If you want a tremolo with a ridiculous amount of options - not just rate/depth but wave variation, TINY footprint, and wondeful tone( I like it BEST with alone with just the amp, clean tone ) then this is a great option. I preferred it over the vodoo labs, fulltone, and a couple others- but mainly picked it based on its own merits. I know it will give me what I was looking for in a tremolo.
My only regret was not trying the demeter as well. Ive heard that one sounds wonderful!!! But again this one had way more options, so I can live with that regret.

Very easy to use as all of the controls are very intuative. Doesn't take long at all to get a good sound out of the Semaphore. There are so many sonic posibilities with this that it's near impossible to settle on just one! No manual came with it but it really isn't needed.

Setup: Gibson RD / Custom Fender Jaguar into Boss TU-2, 4-loop true-bypass pedals (various pedals in loops - 2x vintage EH Polychorus, Boss CE-20, Ibanez, DE-7, original digitech Whammy, vintage Big Muff, Boss DF-2) into Kitty Hawk Junior tube amp.

The sound quality on this and flexibility set this apart from every other tremolo pedal I've tried. Just blew my Dunlop tremolo off my board and into the neighbour's yard :) Interacts well with other pedals and the volume control means that unit-gain or even a slight boost for solos is always possible no matter what setting.

The beauty with this pedal is the range of tones - the wave-shape possibilities and the range of speeds (uber-slow to ring-mod fast). This is the most musical tremolo I've ever tried and there are beautiful pinging sounds I didn't know a trem could make!

Controls:
RATE - from stupidly slow to so fast that it's almost pure tone!
FAST/SLOW - switches between the two rate ranges.
SHAPE (knob & switch) - this is where the Semaphore really shines. Not just the standard triange to square wave-shapes that more tremolo pedals offer - this goes the extra step and gives "Square, Triangle, Sawtooth, Ramp, Pulse, Blip" wave-shapes. And they really do make a difference and give so much more flexibility over other pedals.
DEPTH - From absolutely no trem effect to nice and full sound. Only naggle is that the depth knob doesn't seem to do anything below 12:00.
VOLUME - controls the overall volume of the pedal. This is great to ensure you have unity-gain, but also to give a bit of boost when needed. At some settings (especially very fast rates) a bit of boost is great. Plus if you turn the depth to zero you can use this as a boost pedal! Sweet...

Inside and out this pedal looks beautiful. Great quality parts - Alpha pots, really nice knobs, good quality switch, etc.

Emailed Nicholas about a small issue I was having (pickups seemed to overload the pedal - btw, just adjust the internal trimpot) and he emailed me back within the hour! That's impressive!!

Overall this is just an amazing pedal - probably the most musical, flexible and well-designed tremolo pedal available. Worth every penny and more. There isn't anything this pedal is missing or can't do, and I can't see ever replacing it with anything else. The Semaphore does standard sounds to wacky sound and everything in between - and does it all very well.